{"id":4955,"date":"2025-10-15T19:34:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2025-10-15T19:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T19:34:49","slug":"daniel-hodges-a-self-described-peacemaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/daniel-hodges-a-self-described-peacemaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Hodges: A Self-Described Peacemaker"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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By Adam Stone<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\"Dan<\/strong><\/p>

In the world of disability advocacy, Daniel Hodges describes himself as a peacemaker.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cBusinesses want to offer their goods and services to the broadest customer base possible. And the customers with disabilities want to be able to transact business,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about finding the friction that shouldn\u2019t be there, and helping both sides eliminate that friction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

It should come as no surprise that the advocacy organization he co-founded is called the Peaces of Me Foundation.<\/span><\/p>

Blind from birth, and living with a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers Danlos syndrome, 41-year-old Hodges wears multiple hats. In addition to serving as president of the foundation, he\u2019s a business development executive in The C-Suite Network, a professional-development community. He serves on the board of advisors of StationMD, a physician service supporting those with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>

More? Sure! Hodges also is a strategic consultant with Real Life Access, a business promoting digital accessibility, and he\u2019s director of partnerships at management consulting firm SA Consulting.<\/span><\/p>

What motivates him to fight through the physical challenges to continue this work?<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWhen I was in my early 30s, I saw people my age falling out of the workforce left and right with these medical conditions,\u201d he says. \u201cFor the ones who were able to stay working, it wasn\u2019t about what they did for a living, it was about whether they had a job or a calling that was powerful enough that it helped them get out of bed in the morning, even on the worst pain days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

He\u2019s organized his professional life on that principle. \u201cIf I take on the projects that are really motivating for me, that increases my capacity to go out and do these things,\u201d Hodges says.<\/span><\/p>

That personal connection to the work helps to drive success, says Fred Brown, professor of law and director of the graduate tax program at UBalt Law. <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s all lived experience: He\u2019s lived as a disabled individual for almost his entire life, and he is incredibly articulate,\u201d says Brown, who also serves as <\/span>a board member at Peaces of Me.<\/span><\/p>

With no background in disability, \u201cat first I was a little reluctant to join the board, but he just made a powerful case,\u201d Brown says. \u201cHe\u2019s a very convincing individual, and it comes from his incredible sincerity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Even with that sincerity, this work can be challenging. \u201cThe hard part is getting people to understand what kind of advocacy I do,\u201d says Hodges, who lives near Houston, TX. Again: It\u2019s about peace-making. While the political landscape tells an adversarial story \u2014 the right says there\u2019s too much accommodation, the left says there isn\u2019t enough \u2014 Hodges seeks a middle ground. \u201cLet me compete in an arena free of bias and barriers, and may the best candidate win. I want a fair and reasonable chance to earn what I\u2019m capable of. I don\u2019t want a handout.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Karyn Schulz says Hodges is well-suited to make that case. As director of the UBalt Office of Disability and Access Services, she assisted him during his legal studies, and went on to serve on the Peaces of Me board herself.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cHe wants people to learn,\u201d she says. \u201cHe\u2019s not high and mighty, not one of those militant folks: <\/span>You will do this because it\u2019s the law.<\/span><\/i> He really brings people into the conversation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

A natural question arises: Why would a peacemaker want to train in the inherently adversarial profession of law? \u201cI had the same question,\u201d Hodges says. \u201cI don\u2019t like arguing with people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

But he found there\u2019s more to law than litigation. There are alternative dispute resolution and mediation. More to the point, he says, \u201cI\u2019m able to use that legal knowledge to help others understand how the law works.\u201d\u00a0 And the legal training itself \u201chelps me to dissect the different arguments from different perspectives, to look at things on a deeper level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

He brings that deeper-level approach to his advocacy work. When a national landscape-architect certifying organization asked Peaces of Me to create a service project for its members, Hodges counter-offered with an educational opportunity. He took the landscape designers to a park, to demonstrate personally what accessibility looks like.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWe had about 50 people out there touring this park with us, and more the next day in a 90-minute Q&A,\u201d he says. \u201cWe said: <\/span>Let\u2019s put our heads together and start elevating this conversation<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

To further his work, Hodges now is pursuing a master\u2019s degree in health care administration at Western Governors University. He credits UBalt with helping to launch his career, and applauds its proactive stance on disability.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

\u201cWhen I started there, there was one other blind student, and we were the first blind students that most of the professors or administrators had ever dealt with on that level,\u201d he says. \u201cWe all worked together to make it a better experience, not just for us, but for every student that comes after us.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Adam Stone <\/em><\/strong>is a writer based in Annapolis.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Adam Stone In the world of disability advocacy, Daniel Hodges describes himself as a peacemaker. \u201cBusinesses want to offer their goods and services to the broadest customer base possible. And the customers with disabilities want to be able to transact business,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s all about finding the friction that shouldn\u2019t be there, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3596,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5293,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions\/5293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubalt.edu\/lawmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}